AN: It has taken a long time but I've finally completed this story. I spent the last day on it, determined to not let it go unfinished forever. I'm just going to upload it all at once for you guys. I haven't reread it so any errors I'll apologize for now. Still need to complete my other story too, hopefully I'm as motivated to finish that one as I was for this one. Hope you like it. And as usual I'm a broke college student who owns nothing, that honor belongs to Rowling. I changed some things (obviously but kept some of it the same, depends.).

Chapter Nine

The Seven Sins

It is impossible for a man to be freed from the habit of sin before he hates it, just as it is impossible to receive forgiveness before confessing his trespasses... –Ignatius

When I first became friends with 'The Boy Who Lived', I started having visions, dreams about dying in battle protecting my friends and saving the world from a horrible evil. As my addictions grew, as my sins became overbearing, those visions changed to my own death coming at the end of a bottle falling off the cliffs of my once prized family home. Had I not been in Gryffindor, had I not possessed the strength and determination to live and sacrifice at whatever cost, had I been a lesser person, I would have let the pain of this prison consume me whole. But I knew now I had something to live for, something to fight for, and it gave me the chance to wake up to my prison cell every morning and face those that thought were superior to me. I had a sister out there, in hiding, who had no family left except myself. And I had a boy, a boy who was sacrificing his potential place in this new society, one where he could rise up some day to be second in command, to protect me and mine and keep us safe. I wasn't sure where my sister was, but I knew Draco had found her a temporary home that would look after her and keep her hidden. I kept my ears open for any signs about the Weasley's or Harry but for days had heard nothing good nor bad and that kept me sane. Every day I was visited by my captor's son who under the pretense was using me as a sex slave, was truly keeping me alive and whole with food and provisions. But it was only a matter of time before I would be forced to stand before him. I knew he would be arriving today, I knew not because of the face of the boy that I was coming to care for, but because of treatment I was given by the rest of the household. I was to have a bath, clean clothes, and all scars hidden or removed if possible so that I would not insult my new overlord. It wouldn't have mattered anyway, I would still be referred to as Mudblood trash, and I would rather stand before the Dark Lord looking the part than under the false pretense of having fair treatment in this prison hell.

"Bring the girl before me." I heard the faint hiss of a well recognized voice call from the top floor. It has been two hours since Draco had dropped off my supplies and made sure I was 'ready' to see this new prince of state. I wondered who he would send to fetch me to him like a common dog.

I didn't have to wait long, it was mere seconds when I recognized the ratlike face of Peter Pettigrew. I hadn't seen the man since he ran away back in 3rd year after discovering Sirius's innocence and Peter's deception in the death of Harry's parents. The short stout man made my skin crawl and my stomach twist in disgust.

"The Dark Lord will see you now. I hope you will behave yourself, wouldn't want anything to…happen…to you." He smirked with a sadistic grin. I forced myself to take deep breaths, calming my magic down before I exposed my secret.

"Miss Granger is it?" I didn't want to look at his face, the face of a man more terrifying than Hitler or Stalin combined. I would have rather faced the wrath of Nero than stand before the snakelike creature that spoke with a hissing tongue. It took every ounce of Gryffindor courage I possessed to look him in the eyes and not cower.

"Yes." I replied albeit faintly. I tried to picture the man he once was, before hatred and power corrupted his features. I was told he was handsome, a charmer to anyone who engaged in conversation. He was told to have had the features of his hated Muggle father, but with the ruthlessness of his mother's side. He was a dangerous man from the moment of conception and it wasn't any wonder the boy turned out the way he had.

"Courageous. Never particularly liked that Gryffinor quality much. You proud lions think that standing up for yourselves and loved ones makes you better than those around you. But you do remind me of someone…Someone I once met long ago. I never forget a face you know." He sounded almost chipper, like a telemarketer trying to get you to buy a product you have no use for.

"She has a gift, wild magic, my lord. We saw her use it when we first brought her here!" The vivacious voice of Bellatrix exclaimed and from the looks of it Lucius was not too happy to have had his cover-up blown. He obviously wasn't certain what he saw was true and didn't want his overlord to know.

"A Mudblood? With special powers? Nonsense Bella, there's no possible way that this mere girl could possess any extraordinary gifts being born as she was to two Muggle nobodies." He almost sounded amused as he chastised his favorite follower.

"Is it true Master Malfoy. For I have it on good authority that you have spent the better part of this past year in her company." The Dark Lord asked the young man leaning against the doorway. Anyone close to him could see his muscles shaking ever so slightly, but his face never betrayed an air of indifference.

"I've never seen her do anything special unless you could memorizing text books, sir." Draco retorted back nonchalantly.

"See Bella, she is a mere girl, and a Mudblood at that. Her only talent comes from memorizing spells too complex for her own purposes. Tell me Miss Granger, who are your parents?" It was as though he was having a conversation with her over tea, there was no torture, no screaming, no anger of any kind. So far he hadn't even mentioned Harry or Dumbledore's plans.

"Jean Hawthorne and John Granger." I replied since it didn't make a difference whether I told them their names after he had them murdered weeks ago.

"Legilimens!" I heard the snakelike man shout and I knew he was invading my mind to see if I was hiding anything. Though I had not personally studied Occulmency; I knew enough about mind invasion to alter and hide the memories of Draco, showing only my parents, our house, some images of school and innocent ones of Ron and Harry. He didn't stay long, rather shifting through the layers quickly just to glance and move on.

"Your mother rather reminds me of someone. Lucius, before killing Potter's parents, do you remember the raid on the Muggle University?"

"Vaguely my lord, the all girls school?" The blonde mentioned with an grin plastered largely on his face.

"Do you remember if we let anyone, live, perhaps?" How could the man not remember whether he killed an entire all girls university or not?

"I believe a few escaped. From what I gathered the Healers altered their memories so they wouldn't remember the…incident." He finished with a slight laugh. Voldemort's smile grew wide too and a deep feeling of dread began to pit in my stomach. I knew my mother went to an all girl's university, though she didn't talk about the school much. She met my dad soon after transferring and had me rather unexpectedly. I always assumed it was another reason why she resented me, although she still managed to finish school and help my father open their practice. I didn't like where this conversation was heading and yet a piece of me knew, somehow, what conclusion they were all coming too. A raid on a girl's university meant they celebrated particular 'conquests'. Most of the girls didn't survive, but those that did could have ended up with a permanent reminder and a lapse of memory on how it happened.

"Severus." He called to the dark haired man standing beside him. I hadn't seen Snape since our last detention where I realized he had altered my memories to keep me from knowing that he angered me to the point of releasing my power. I had heard through the other prisoner's that it was Snape's own wand that killed Dumbledore and sent his body flying over the Astronomy Tower that night. I knew where his loyalties lied now. I knew he would tell his overlord about my abilities.

"I want you to run a test. I want the DNA of from my followers that accompanied that night to match against this girl. If these…abilities…Bellatrix claims she possesses are real, then she may not be a Mudblood after all." His snakelike features grinned and suddenly I felt like I reverted to my five year old self watching "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and terrified to find out if the man's evil was real, or if there was a chance at redemption.

"Son, I believe you have been keeping our guest…occupied. Take her to one of the spare rooms upstairs. But make sure the wards stay on tight against any possible escape. Our little Gryffindor princess could potentially be one of our Slytherin heirs after all." Lucius smirked and I wondered how eagerly he had participated in the raid that night. Knowing what I knew of Draco's birthday, it would have been around the time Lucius's wife had just realized she was carrying his heir.

All sense of courage fell the moment the door to the upstairs 'guest' room closed. I couldn't stop the shaking. It wasn't just from alcohol and drug withdrawal, nor was it solely from lack of food and poor cleansing habits as of late. It wasn't even just due to the knowledge that my sister was out there alone without a mother or father. Any one of them could have been my father. A raid of that size would have had all Voldemort's closest followers in attendance: Lucius, McNair, Snape, Pettigrew, etc. I ran to the makeshift bathroom and proceeded to vomit up the pathetic breakfast I was served hours ago. How had my life come to this? I should be grateful I'm alive at all, but to live knowing that the real reason my own parents secretly hated me was because they didn't know who my father was. They wiped my mother's memory so all that was left was a sense of dread and a permanent reminder that something awful happened to her at her school and I was byproduct. It had nothing to do with magic, not specifically anyway. It wouldn't have made a difference if I had been a witch or a squib, she'd have still hated me, resented me. And if I'm Lucius's…

"I can't…I can't breathe. It hurts. How…" I knew I wasn't making much sense, and I knew he was patiently sitting behind me waiting for my sick spells to pass over.

"It's sick. It's just…sick. You and I could…no…I won't think about it." I continued in between sobs. Once again I was grateful for the silent wards Draco placed on the room.

"I don't believe for a second that we're related. You do have a gift, Hermione. You have a power that I could only ever hope to one day possess. Your mother was a muggle, which means the strength of your power comes from your father, and mine is nothing significant. He specializes in business, in torture, and in pain, but he is no extraordinary wizard. In fact if I had to render a guess, I would say it would probably be Snape or Voldemort himself." He was right, Lucius Malfoy was not a talented or gifted wizard. Just a bully with a bank account. But the options he left me with were not much more pleasing.

"He's not evil you know, my godfather." He was talking about Snape.

"He killed Dumbledore." I shouted at him, watching him flinch momentarily in pain.

"He'd have had a reason. I know the man. He's been a mentor to me all his life. He's hard, and selfish, and most of the time honest to the point of hurtful, but he's a good man underneath. I don't know a lot about his past, he keeps mostly to himself, but if he killed Dumbledore it would be for a good reason."

I knew I should trust what he was saying, but part of me, the damaged part, knew that I could never fully trust another human being again after everything I had been through. Part of me missed the days when my biggest fear was overdosing or having my friends or professors find out my deadly secrets, my sins. This was the beginning of all our biggest fears. I had been so completely out of touch with Harry and the rest of the Order that I wasn't sure if Dumbledore had given him enough information to eliminate Voldemort once and for all. I wasn't even sure if everyone was still alive and what they were planning. I had been here for weeks picking up scraps of information during my enslavement and listening to the new captures talk in the cells around me. Now I wouldn't even be given that small comfort, I would be placed up here and possibly raised to a whole new level if they found out I was the offspring of some important Death Eater. I didn't want their lies, their promises of a better world, a brighter world, where blood status meant more than a persons' self worth.

"Nothing contributes so much to tranquillize the mind as a steady purpose." The voice of my lover quoted.

"Mary Shelley? You read Frankenstein?" I pondered. Lately this man seemed full of surprises.

He shrugged for a moment.

"It seemed appropriate at the moment." He retorted in his nonchalant voice.

"Meaning?"

"Listen, here's the awful truth. You're stuck here because there's no safe way to get you to escape without something horrible occurring. Fact: you may be the offspring of a very powerful wizard and that's something you're going to have to accept whether you want to acknowledge it or not. Another fact: you are not alone in this, and between both of our intellectual minds we should be able to come up with some sort of plan. Your Gryffindor demeanor may want you to stand up and fight them, but that will only guarantee a quick end, no matter your parentage. You have proven in the past that you're capable of some Slytherin qualities," I shook my head vehemently .

"Don't deny it. I've heard some of the things you pulled for your friends in the past. I'm also not suggesting that it's such a bad thing. Listen the only way you can survive this is to play up the person they want you to be. Once we know who fathered you let yourself be wooed to the other side. But make it believable because they know how you were raised and they know your friends, even if you haven't been close to them lately. Become a spy for your friends and you just might make it through this." He grabbed my face and forced my eyes to bear down into his. I knew what he was saying was logical, I knew I could be a valuable asset to my friends by infiltrating the inside, especially since Snape's loyalties were uncertain. God, I never wanted any of this. Years before I just thought I could help by studying spells from books and teaching Harry what I learned. I was not a fighter, in fact as of late I was more the coward than anything else. I brought shame to my house by choosing to ignore those around me and escaping into my little world of false securities.

"What if I don't want to make it through this…" I looked away, I didn't want my shame to read on my face.

"Suck it up Granger, life isn't easy. Don't think that you are the only one who's had a tough life. Look at your best friend, he's had every bad thing happen to him and somehow he wakes up every morning with a hope for a better future. You haven't had it easy, none of us have. We all have our dirty little secrets, we all have some kind of self destruct button that's constantly ready to be pushed at a moment's notice but you don't see them giving up like you. What happened to you, I wouldn't wish on any friend or enemy but you can either learn from it or let it consume you. In fact, here," He walked over to the small dresser in the room where his wand was laying and conjured up a small vial of liquid.

"Here you go if you're ready to give up so bad." I knew from the tone of his voice that it must be some kind of poison. He must have had his own emergency exit planned as well.

"I hate you, you know." I spat at him with all the anger I could muster even though I knew it sounded pathetic.

He grinned in reply, that smirk that was starting to become my undoing.

"I know." He stated breaking up the silence.

Then there was a knock at the door, and I knew this was the beginning of the end.